Aimee’s Law, also known as the "No Second Chances for Murderers, Rapists, or Child Molesters Act" would put an end to the revolving door of justice that floods our cities and neighborhoods with convicted murderers, rapists and child molesters. These are crimes so heinous that we must draw a line in the sand. We must say to criminals, if you commit one of these three crimes you’re finished, you don’t get a second chance.

I stress the narrow category of crimes we are targeting: murder, rape, and child molestation. We’re not targeting jaywalkers, shoplifters, or even drug dealers. We’re targeting the worst of the worst.

I hope that Members of the Crime Subcommittee will ask any opponent of Aimee’s Law: "Should a pedophile have a second chance to live in your neighborhood?". Or, as so often is the case, a third or fourth chance? How about a rapist? Should they be given another chance to violate women?

If any bill has ever been through the legislative wringer it’s Aimee’s Law. Aimee’s Law, which passed last year as an amendment to the Juvenile Crime Bill with 412 votes in the House and 81 votes in the Senate, should already be law. Chairman McCollum convened a hearing on the bill in 1998. The hearing resulted in several improvements to the original bill. On the House Floor, Chairman McCollum referred to the bill in its current form as a "terrific product" and an "extraordinary bill." Another Member of this panel, Ms. Sheila Jackson-Lee, offered words of support that deserve repeating. She said: "It is tragic that we face, on a daily basis, the attack of our children, [by] child molesters and murderers and rapists who go about our Nation and repeat their crimes."

Congresswoman Jackson-Lee is right. It is indeed tragic. You will soon hear testimony from Gail Willard, the mother of an extraordinarily talented young woman named Aimee Willard, for whom the bill is named. She will speak about the death of her daughter at the hands of a convicted killer released after spending less than 12 years in prison for his original crime. If the man who killed her daughter was simply kept in prison after his first murder, Aimee would be alive today. Fred Goldman will compliment Mrs. Willard’s testimony with a review of the crime epidemic.

Politicians talk tough on crime, but here are statistics you will not see in a campaign commercial: The average time served for rape is 5 ½ years; for child molestation it is 4 years; and for murder it is 8 years. As a direct result of this leniency, every year more than 14,000 murders, rapes and sex crimes against children are committed by previously convicted and released murderers and sex offenders — 14,000 crimes that, by definition, are totally preventable.

It’s not as if murderers, rapists and child molesters become Boy Scouts after their release from prison. The recidivism rates for sex offenders are especially high. As the best experts who have studied this issue will tell you, "Once a molester, always a molester." The Department of Justice found in 1997 that, within just three years of release from prison, an estimated 52 percent of discharged rapists and 48 percent of other sexual offenders were rearrested for a new crime, often another sex offense.

Behind the statistics are grisly threats by sex offenders eligible for release.

One molester warned: "I am doomed to eventually rape, then murder my poor little victims to keep them from telling on me. I might be walking the streets of your city, your community, your neighborhoods."

The amended version of H.R. 894 would provide additional funding to states that convict a murderer, rapist, or child molester, if that criminal had previously been convicted of one of those same crimes in a different state. The cost of prosecuting and incarcerating the criminal would be deducted from the Federal crime assistance funds intended to go to the first state, and instead be given to the second state that obtained the conviction.

Of course, states have the right to release convicted murderers, rapists and child molesters into their cities and neighborhoods. However, the question is, who should pay when one of these violent predators commits another murder, rape or sex offense in a different state? Should Pennsylvania, which has already paid a huge human cost with the loss of Aimee Willard, have to pay for the prosecution and incarceration of her killer, Arthur Bomar? Or should Nevada, which knew Bomar was a vicious killer but decided to release him anyway, pay for the "carnage costs" inflicted on the state of Pennsylvania? I believe the answer is obvious.

A safe harbor would not require the funds transfer if the criminal has served 85 percent of his original sentence and if the first state was a truth-in-sentencing state with a higher than average typical sentence for the crime.

As to the administration of Aimee’s Law, if you can operate a calculator, you can administer the bill. Moreover, states that are so concerned about the implementation of this law can simply keep dangerous rapists, murderers and child molesters behind bars until they are no longer a threat to society.

The law enforcement community in particular understands the importance of this legislation. The Nation’s largest police union, the National Fraternal Order of Police has strongly backed the bill. Their President has said, "The bill addresses this issue smartly, without infringing on the states and without federalizing crimes."

Victims’ rights and child advocacy groups have also endorsed the bill: Child Help USA, Klaas Kids Foundation, Kids Safe, Mothers Outraged at Molesters, and the list goes on and on and on.

Of course, no bill satisfies everyone. Some, such as Connecticut State Representative Mike Lawlor, argue that Aimee’s Law responds to a problem that does not exist and infringes on states’ rights.

Doesn’t exist? Once again, I refer to the Justice Department’s own statistics — 8 years for murder, 5 ½ for rape and 4 for child molestation. Thirteen percent of men convicted of rape serve absolutely no prison time at all. If that’s not a problem than I don’t know what is.

Mr. Lawlor needs to look no further than a recent case involving his own state of Connecticut to get a taste of the problem.

Convicted of raping and sexually assaulting three girls in Massachusetts, John Urban was released after serving 10 years in prison when he convinced a judge he was cured. He wasn’t. This ticking time bomb moved to Connecticut, where he admitted to stalking 100 women at the University of Connecticut. He told police that he had hoped to sexually assault these college women at vacant homes he selected close to campus. When apprehended by police, he had in his possession a rock-filled sock, rope, handcuffs, and condoms to evade detection through the DNA database in Massachusetts. Under current law, the people of Connecticut would pay all of the costs — both human and financial — for Massachusetts’ dangerous error.

The federalism concerns raised by Lawlor also don’t survive serious scrutiny. Aimee’s Law simply adds an additional factor — one centered on fairness and accountability — to the existing formula for distributing federal crime funds to the states. That’s why some of the strongest states’ rights advocates in Congress voted for this legislation.

Rather than testify in opposition to a bill supported by the entire Connecticut delegation, I wish Mr. Lawlor were here to wish us well and announce he was returning to Connecticut to rachet up sentences for the murderers, rapists and child molesters who are routinely released with a slap on the wrist only to terrorize the innocent yet again.

Another witness will testify that the bill provides perverse incentives, mainly that states will plead down charges to avoid the scope of the bill. Hardly. Prosecutors will always have discretion, but even the most cynical prosecutor who does not care about protecting women and children from violence still worries about his or her political future. Plea bargaining violent crimes down to misdemeanors is a sure way to end one’s career.

Let’s eliminate the threat posed by murderers, rapists and child molesters, and send Aimee’s Law to the President immediately.